


I know It's Hurting You, But It's Killing Me

by The_Readers_Writer



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Bullying, Child Abuse, F/M, Finn/Rey - Freeform, Finnrey, Fluff, Foster Care, Rey Needs A Hug, Star Wars - Freeform, the fluff is strong on my blog
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 16:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8540461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Readers_Writer/pseuds/The_Readers_Writer
Summary: Basically, two kids in the foster care system caught in a stalemate





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Testing out my 'dark muscle.' A little bit darker than the other stuff I've written, because I need to know if it's any good or not. Please tell me what you think in all honesty, good or bad. If you guys like it, I've got something really, and I mean REALLY dark up my sleeve. It'll get you right in the feels, I swear!! But for now, read this and give me your feed back. Appreciated :))) 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: IDOA

New semester equals new classes. 'Why!?' Rey thought to herself. Why did she sign up for gym class? Yes it's an easy credit, and if it rains outside you pretty much get a free day. But had she been thinking about how bad a gym day could go, she probably would've never signed up. 

A change of clothes is required. The last thing she would want is for someone, anyone to she her thin, mal-nourished frame. She had actually managed to loose even more weight now that she had been switched over to this new foster home. The clothes she already had in her possession which were small to begin with, were now beginning to hang off of her. 

There was also the matter of the...'evidence' if she were to change in front of anyone. And that was something she definitely didn't want anyone to see, let alone know about. Rey herself didn't even like looking at the ugly things that had been placed upon her skin. Even she cringed at the fact that she knew that they were there. 

And since the 'evidence' was there, she'd figured it would probably be even harder to move around. Gym class is all about physical activity. And with what she went through last night, physical activity was the very last thing she wanted to do.

All of these bad things could happen to her while she was in gym class, and she hadn't even gotten there yet. Several scenarios went through her mind, it just happened to be the one that she hadn't thought of that actually ended up happening. Not even two seconds after walking into the gymnasium, she felt a hand on her shoulder as they quickly slid her bag off of her shoulder. She quickly turned around to see one of the senior jocks holding her book bag high in the air. 

"Hey! Give that back!" Rey said going into reach for it. The jock only stood there, extending his arm further in the air out of Rey's reach. 

"Good God! Look at this thing! It's so ratty it looks like it could just fall apart just from me holding it this way." Rey jumped to try to retrieve her book bag, but the jock was much taller than she was. And after she figured out one jump wasn't going to get it back, she decided not to jump again, because she felt foolish.

"Give it back, now!" she demanded. 

"Or what?" the jock asked teasingly, tossing her book bag to another jock who was standing behind Rey. He caught it, unzipped it, and started taking her papers that were stuffed inside, out.

"Aww look, she got a 'B' on her advanced chemistry test!" the other jock said. Rey could feel her cheeks flush hot with anger. They were teasing her, had taken her bag, wouldn't give it back, were going through her things, and now had attracted the attention of almost everyone in the gymnasium. 

"Give me my bag back!" Rey yelled. She lunged for her bag, catching the other jock off guard. She gripped onto one side of the bag, he onto the other, until the inevitable happened. 

A loud ripping sound tore through the air, as Rey's papers flew everywhere and her books dropped to the floor. 

"Oh no!" Rey shrieked, going to her knees trying to pick everything up. 

"Ha ha, I told you that thing would fall apart" the first jock said, looking down at Rey mockingly. 

Rey had never in her life felt such a surge of anger, frustration, and humiliation all at once. She could feel everyone's eyes on her, and could hear everyone laughing at her. She felt like should could just break down and cry, but that would only add to how awful this situation already was. But just when she felt like one small rogue tear might slip out and fall, over all of the laughing, and talking she heard something else in the background. "Hey!" the voice said. And then she heard approaching foot steps. 

"Hey!" the voice said again. She looked up to see yet another jock walking up to where they all were. She probably figured that he was going to say something like, 'Hey, don't start without me!' But what she heard next actually surprised her. 

"Leave her alone!" the new jock said. "What's the matter with you guys!?" he said walking a bit closer. Rey had almost everything gathered up when she looked up again. Surely she was mistaken, surely she wasn't seeing straight. Surely this jock was not about to bend down to help her pick her things up. Before that even had the chance to happen, she had all of her things gathered up in her arms, and walked out of the gymnasium, purposefully bumping shoulders with the first jock who started it.  
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By the time she had made it to the lost and found, the bell had rang. It was lunch time, and even though she was starving, she knew she didn't have enough money today to by anything. Her stomach growled at the though of food. So she placed her hand over her stomach to quiet it. 

Hopefully someone had left an old book bag in the lost and found so she would have something to carry all of her books in. If she came home with a ripped up book bag, and needing a new one, it would end up being a long night, just like how last night was. 

After some digging around she finally found one. The zipper wouldn't close all the way, but heck, it was still a book bag, and it would get her books from A to B. It was even in better shape than the one that she had previously owned. 

Rey stayed in the lost and found department until the bell rang again. One more class to get through, then she could go home. But of course, it was one of those days that drug on forever. 

It seemed like five hours had gone by instead of the standard ninety minuets until the bell finally rung. Rey picked up her new bag, and was out the door. "Leave one hell hole, only to go to another" she said under her breath. She walked out into the hallway, down the front steps of the building, and onto the sidewalk which was a straight shot to her foster home. Rey loved this time of day. Rain or shine. It was her fifteen minuets of nothing but peace and quiet. No annoying jocks to mess with her, no brooding foster parents to yell at her. The walk was probably around six and a half minuets, give or take. But she always tried to stretch the walk out as long as it would go. She didn't have to answer to anyone while she was out there. Up until she heard footsteps approaching from behind her, rather quickly.

She turned around as fast as she could, ready for her bag to be taken again. But was shocked to find the third jock standing in front of her. He was out of breath, she assumed he was running to catch up with her...but why?

"Wow..." is all he said. "You walk really fast." Rey raised her eyebrows dubiously. What did he want? Just to tell her that she walks fast?

"I uhhh, saw you walking in the hallway, and I, um, called your name a couple of times, but I guess you didn't hear me." Now she was even more confused, how did he know her name, she had only ever seen this jock around campus. But then it clicked with her when he held up a piece of paper. One of 'her' pieces of paper, she must've missed picking up when her bag was torn open.

"This is you isn't it?" he asked pointing to the name on the top of the paper. "You are Rey Walker, right?" She said nothing, just snatched her paper from him, turned on her heels and kept walking. 

"Hey wait!" she could hear him calling from behind her, and his footsteps speeding up. "I wanted to apologize for what happened earlier" he said. Rey stopped walking, and was now even more so confused than she had been. Why would he apologize to her? He hadn't done anything, in fact it looked like he was trying to help her. She didn't waste anytime trying to figure it out though.

"I'm sure you are" is all she said and she walked passed him and proceeded onward. 

"No really" he said attempting to catch up with her again. "Those guys take things too far sometime, and I know they can do some really mean things some times, so..." "So what?" Rey said cutting him off.

"So what?" she said again. "It happened, and there isn't anything that can be done about it now. Just forget about it, and leave me alone" Rey said, while once again trying to walk by him to go home. This time was normally her only source of relaxation...evidently it wasn't today. 

"So do you accept my apology?" he said yet again, catching up to her, and cutting her off. By this time, Rey was getting fed up. Getting fed up with answering questions, fed up with talking to this jock who she had no clue who he was, and fed up with being reminded as to what happened earlier today.

"Look" Rey said stepping into the jocks personal space. "I don't know you, and I don't want to know you. I don't care about your fake apology, and the only reason why I didn't knee your buddies in the balls back in the gym is because I wanted to get all of my papers up off the floor before they started kicking them around. You should know I could've hurt them if I wanted to, and I can do the same to you." She took a small step even closer, closing what little distance that was left in between them, before looking him right in the eye and whispering, "Don't make me break that perfect nose of yours." The jock stood perfectly still. Rey was so close she could hear him swallow down a huge gulp of nerves. "That's what I thought" she said before bumping shoulders with him and walking passed him. Needless to say, he didn't follow this time.  
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Once Rey was home, the only thing she wanted to do was take a nice shower, have something to eat, and lay down a while. God knows she deserves it, after what happened last night and the day she had today put together really had her thinking about some RnR. Unfortunately so, she walked into a house of screaming and crying and chaos going on all around her. If she could make a guess, she figured this is probably what it's like inside of a hornets nest. 

"Shut those kids up now Phasma! I'm trying to watch TV" she heard a voice come from the living room. And by the slur of his words Rey was guessing that Mr. Plutt, one of her 'foster parents' was already half-way drunk. Which meant that anything could happen tonight...just like with what happened last night. 

Rey walked in and kept her head down, maybe no one would notice that she came in so she could go straight up stairs without being stopped. "You know those dishes aren't going to do themselves" she heard her other 'foster parent' Ms. Phasma say. "I've got a lot of homework" Rey said, almost reaching the stairs, before she felt a sharp grip place itself in her hair, only to be yanked backwards. Ms. Phasma's mouth was right next to Rey's ear. "And I said 'the dishes aren't going to do themselves'" she said before releasing her grip on Rey's hair with a hard push forward. 

Still looking down, Rey quietly complied. "I'll do the dishes now Ms. Phasma."

"You talk back to me next time, and you'll get worse girl" Ms. Phasma said back to Rey. 

Rey continued to keep her head down as she did the dishes, still not wanting to draw any attention to herself. Ms. Phasma and Mr. Plutt seemed content with how things were for the time being, and that was a good thing. After she was done sweeping the floors she decided to take the trash out, one less thing Ms. Phasma would ask her to do. She gathered the trash bag up and carried it outside to the garbage can on the curve, before she stopped dead in her tracks. There was that stupid jock boy again right across the street. Rey was now more annoyed than she had been all day.

"What are you doing now?" she screamed at the boy. "Following me?!"

The jock looked at her confused. He didn't say anything but just stood there. Rey dumped the trash in the can, before turning around and saying, "Just leave me alone! I mean it! And stop following me!"

The boy crossed the street and walked right over to her. Only he didn't stop where she stood but kept walking into the next yard. He then turned around and said, "I wasn't following you....I live here." 

The jock said nothing else as he silently made his way to the house next to Rey's. Before he disappeared inside the house, Rey looked at the sign above the doorframe that read, 'The First Order Home for Boys.'


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey tries to figure Finn out. Why would he, a popular (and handsome) jock, be nice to her? Of all people? But then again, he is a foster kid, just like her. So she figures, should she give him a chance...or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry y'all, not only that it took me so long to update, but also on the fact that I had to renigotiate from three chapters in this story to four. I hope nobody minds :)

'Huh...' Rey thought to herself. 'So he's a foster kid too?' On the way back up the steps and onto the porch she kept thinking of it over and over again. 

'One of the most popular jocks in school is an orphan just like me." There was no way in the world that he was possibly an orphan. Maybe he was the son of one of the people who ran The First Order Home for Boys. In all of the years that Rey had been an orphan, she had never come across a foster kid who was genuinely nice to her. Who tried to look out for her, who expected absolutely nothing in return. There had to be a catch she thought. 

Rey opened the screen back door to re-enter the house. The dishes were done, the trash was taken out, the counters were wiped down, and the floors were swept. Rey didn't think that there was anything else that Mr. Plutt or Ms. Phasma would've wanted here to do, so she decided to go upstairs to get comfortable for the evening. 

First came the shower. With several other foster kids living in the house along with her, the rules were set in stone. Three minuet showers, absolutely no more than that. And yes, Ms. Phasma would time every single person, every single time. If you went even one second over, you would get drug out of the shower, and beaten. Rey should know...it had happened to her several times before. 

Even though a shower should be a relaxing time of your day, Rey knew better than that. It was more of an anxious process than anything. Hurry up and get the soap, squeeze it into your washcloth, and wash up as quick as you can and rinse off. Turn the water off and get out of the shower as quick as you can. 

Rey had started counting in her head the second time she was drug out of the shower. She wanted to ensure that it didn't happen again. The first and second time that that happened, she had trouble walking for the next couple of days. She had been hit, and hit hard. 

Exiting the shower and walking into her bedroom...her bedroom that she shared with several other girls, she changed into her night clothes and laid down on her bed. 

Finally getting the chance to sit down, she realized how tired she was. Her muscles were screaming at her, and her head hurt. She placed her forearm over top of her face to shield her eyes away from the light. "Rey!" she heard coming from the bottom of the bed. "Rey!" she heard again, only this time she felt a tug on the shirt that she was wearing. She removed her arm from her eyes and looked down. A smile immediately stretched itself across Rey's face. It was her foster sister BeeBee. "You read to me?" she asked holding up a Sesame Street book. 

Even though Rey wanted nothing more than just to lay down and relax, or to get a jump start on her homework, or even to go to sleep without even eating dinner, she wanted to read to the closest thing she had to a sibling even more.

When Rey was younger and obviously still in the foster care system, she never had anyone looking out for her. No one cared, not at all or in the least bit. So after she was placed in Mr. Plutt and Ms. Phasma's home she tried doing the same for herself. Keeping a low profile, not making friends with anyone. But the second she saw BeeBee, she at once felt different. BeeBee had had a home, and parents who loved her very much. They were killed in a house fire, and BeeBee still remembered everything, so her first couple of nights she cried. She cried and the older and even some of the younger kids would give her a rough time. 

"Shut up over there! We're trying to sleep!" they would yell at her insensitively. Rey often thought to herself, 'No one ever stuck their neck out for me when I was little, so why should I?' Even though her conscience pricked at her. What changed her mind is when someone decided to climb out of bed and attempt to shut BeeBee up themselves. 

"Oi!" Rey screamed. Her English accent coming out. She jumped out of her bed and hit the girl who was trying to hurt BeeBee in the face. 

"Come on then, you can sleep with me tonight" she said ushering BeeBee towards her bunk. 

BeeBee immediately climbed into Rey's already warm bed. Once Rey got in herself, BeeBee snuggled up to Rey as tightly as she could. And from then on, that's how it pretty much was. Anytime BeeBee had a bad dream or couldn't sleep she would get out of her bunk and climb into Rey's. Anytime she wanted some company, Rey was always her first choice. And this time, she wanted Rey to read to her.

"Of course I will. Climb up" she said patting the space next to her on her bed. Rey took the book from BeeBee and flipped through the pages before handing it back to her saying, "You can read this one" she said realizing that the book didn't have big words or anything too hard to pronounce. 

"No, I still want you to read" BeeBee pleaded. "Okay, okay" Rey said giving in with a smile. 

Rey read BeeBee her book on her bunk until she heard Ms. Plasma yell upstairs to all the kids that dinner was ready. 

Rey closed the book before looking at BeeBee saying, "To be continued" 

"Aww" BeeBee said.

"Until after dinner" Rey said tapping her index finger on BeeBee's nose. 

BeeBee smiled as she followed Rey downstairs and sat in her chair at the table. Not next to Rey, but across from her. 

Tonight's dinner consisted on macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. Rey hadn't had enough money on her at school to eat lunch, and therefore was starving. She would have went ahead and made herself seconds, but with ten other foster kids living in the same house of her, her consideration kicked in, even though she still was hungry. 

After everyone was done with their dinner, Rey re-cleaned everything that she had previously already done, just to ensure that Mr. Plutt and Ms. Phasma didn't have anything to complain about. But while she was cleaning the counters off, again, she accidentally wiped too close next to Mr. Plutt's beer can, knocking it over. 

"Damn it girl!" Mr. Plutt screamed standing up, with the beer now spilling into his lap. 

"Oh I'm sorry Mr. Plutt, I'll clean it up and get you a new..." before she even had the chance to finish her sentence, she was seeing stars, and then woke up on the floor. She had been backhanded by Mr. Plutt. She slowly went to sit up and went to touch her face, discovering that her nose and lip were both bleeding. Mr. Plutt took another step forward. Rey scooted back on the floor and held her hand up not wanting to be hit again. Only she wasn't hit, but grabbed very strongly by the arm. She was sure that when she checked her arm in the morning, there would be bruises there. 

"Get up and clean this up, right now!" he said shoving her into a nearby counter. Both of her hip bones ended up running into the counter. She went to bend over in pain, but was quickly snatched back yet again, only this time by her hair. Just as Ms. Phasma had done earlier. 

"You heard him. Don't just stand there" she heard Ms. Phasma hiss. 

Rey was on the verge of tears, but had decided a long, long time ago that she wouldn't let anyone see her cry. Not anyone. Not Mr. Plutt, not Ms. Phasma, not the other foster kids, and especially not the kids at school who were constantly teasing her.

After everything was cleaned up, and Mr. Plutt had a new beer in his hand, Rey made her way to the downstairs bathroom. She looked at her face in the mirror and could already tell that the swelling in the entire side of her face would be extremely noticeable for the next couple of days. She'd need ice, and some cream from the first aid kit to make sure that the cut on her lip didn't leave a scar. 

As she exited the bathroom, she went in search of the first aid kit she knew was out in the garage. She opened it up and was quickly disapointed to discover that there was almost nothing left in it. Just a couple of finger band-aids and some baby asprin. She would have to go out and buy something for herself in order to prevent scarring and to lower the chances of swelling. 

She went upstairs, and threw on one of her oversized hoodies, pulling the hoodie up over her head so no one would see her face. Just as she was about to walk out, she heard a tiny whisper come from one of the bunks behind her.

"Rey? You okay?" asked BeeBee's tiny voice.

Rey quickly turned around. Sure to stay out of the light so that BeeBee couldn't see her face and become afraid, and sure to remain quite so that nothing else would go wrong tonight. 

"Yea I'm fine, but you've got to go to sleep now. Mr. Plutt and Ms. Phasma aren't in a very good mood, and plus you've got school tomorrow" Rey said attempting to sound as optimistic as she could. Like there wasn't an actual threat sitting downstairs. 

"But what about my book?" BeeBee asked quietly. 

"It'll have to wait till tomorrow, okay? But I pinkie promise I'll finish it for you then okay?" Rey extended her right pinkie finger towards BeeBee, who extended her own and wrapped it around Rey's. Rey leaned down to kiss the back of her hand before ruffling her hair and instructing her to go back to sleep.

Rey left out the front door, it never mattered to Mr. Plutt and Ms. Phasma if the kids left at any hour of the night. As long as they got their checks for the month, and had their beer to sip on, life was good, and they couldn't have cared less about anything other than that. 

The drug store was only a few blocks away. Yet again, Rey took this time of peace and quite to relax. To not worry about anyone or anything. Even though the side of her face was causing her a fair amount of discomfort, she continued on. 

Once she walked inside, she right away knew where to go, having done this a million other times before. 

Isle seven was slowly turning into a safe haven for Rey. As she approached the cream that she was looking for, the one that would prevent scars. she heard someone speaking behind her. And since she was wearing her sweatshirt with a hoodie on, she had no idea if the voice was talking to her or not. There was something about the voice that sounded so familiar, and yet, Rey couldn't find the energy to care if the voice belonged to someone she knew or not. 

But soon enough, she discovered on the good half of her face, as he walked into her line of sight, that it was indeed someone who she knew. 

"Ugh" she said to herself. "It's the jock." 

"Hey" he said, coming closer. Rey instinctively moved in the opposite direction as he was approaching her. She turned her head away, even though he was sure that she saw him.

"Hey" he repeated. "It's me again. And before you threaten to break my 'perfect nose'...your words not mine, I just wanted to ask you something" he stopped, just two feet shy of Rey's right shoulder. She said nothing, acting as if he wasn't there, in continued search to look for what she had came for. 

"I heard a little bit of commotion coming from your house, just wanted to see if everything was okay?" he asked. 

Rey almost went to look at him, but then she thought better of it, seeing that how her face probably looked exactly how it felt. This jock had heard a commotion, and so he followed her to the drug store to see if she was okay? What game was he playing? What was his angle? What was he thinking? 

As Rey was thinking of all of these questions, her hand had managed to find what it was looking for, but unfortunately so, she ended up knocking it to the ground. She quickly went to reach for it, but almost at the exact same time, the jock went to reach for it too. It was at that moment, they were nearly face to face. He could see as clear as day why she was wearing that hoodie even though it was summer. And why she had the hood up even though it wasn't raining outside. 

Rey knew he could see it, there was no hiding it from him now. But as she made eye contact with him, she was almost shocked to discover such a look of sympathy and caring in this boys' eyes. As a matter a fact, she sure that what she was seeing was because of the head injury she had sustained. He looked like he was reaching his hand out to touch the side of her face. However, Rey didn't allow that to happen. She quickly picked up her product, stood, and turned around to walk to the check out counter.

"Wait!" the jock yelled. Of course, Rey didn't wait, ignoring his words, she kept on walking. 

"Please!" he called from across the isle. Rey didn't want him causing a scene so once she was in line, she, still keeping her back to him, said, "What is it jock?!"

"Your face! He whispered trying to match Rey's discreet tone of voice. "That doesn't look good at all" he said again just as quietly. 

"Yea, so what?!" Rey said this time turning to face him. "Did you follow me all the way here just to tell me that my face looks awful? Well you could have saved yourself the walk down here. I know my face looks bad, which is why I'm trying to buy something right now to help take care of it. So why don't you just go back to your house and leave me alone, jock?!" Rey spat. 

"Next" Rey heard from behind her. She quickly turned around and placed her item on the counter. 

"That'll be..." the cashier began. "Five dollars and twenty-seven cents."

Rey reached into her pocket producing three one dollars bills and bunch of change. She slowly counted, three eighty one, three eighty two, three eight three. She hadn't had enough. Not for lunch earlier on in the day, and not now trying to buy a simple product from the drug store. 

"Here" she heard the jocks' voice from behind her. He placed three neatly crisp one dollar bills on top of her wrinkled up ones. 

She looked back at him, daggers in here eyes. Only the jocks' eyes didn't meet her own. They stayed on the floor, almost knowing that she would be giving him that look once she turned around. She grabbed her product off of the counter and walked out. 

Walking back to her house she didn't know what to think. "Why was this guy doing this?! Why was he being so nice to her, and trying to help her out, and even offer her money for things that she needed? What did he want from her? What was the game that he was playing?" Surely he was getting something in return for being kind to her, she just couldn't figure it out yet. Surely there was an alternative motive for this jock.He couldn't just be being nice on his own, there was no way in the world that that was true. 

Rey wanted to be mad at him for the jock trying to play her as a fool. She wanted to hate him for thinking that he thought that he could pull one over on her. But at the same time, she was finding it increasingly hard to be upset, or mad, or displeased in anyway when she kept running into him. Even though she was sure that he was up to no good, he was a nice guy. He was a very nice guy. He had chased her down to return one of her discarded papers, he hadn't gotten mad any of the times Rey had been short or pretty much flat out rude to him while talking, he helped her pay for her scar cream, and seemed genuinely concerned about her well being for some reason that she couldn't fathom. And on top of all of that, he wasn't bad looking either. Tall, dark, and handsome. 'And what was I thinking?!' Rey internally screamed to herself. 'Telling that jock he had a perfect nose!?" As if she had been paying attention all that much...

There just had to be some sort of catch to this jocks' kindess towards her. But what could it be? What?

Rey had made it back to her house. Carrying her bag in her hand, and glancing over when she heard footsteps approach her from behind and then pass her. It was him. He was walking up his own stairs before looking over at her with those same sympathetic eyes he had given her when they were in the drug store. 

"You know, you don't have to call me jock" he said to her from across the yard.

Rey said nothing, only stood there. 

"Oh yeah? Well what should I call you when I want you to leave me alone then?" she barked back.

He looked down. 'Was he smiling? What was he smiling for? And why did he look so cute when he was smiling?' Rey wanted to kick herself for even allowing her mind to go there. 

"It's Finn" he said speaking up. "You can call me Finn the next time you want me to get lost." He said nothing else. Just gently smiled at her again before opening the door and walking through it, then softly closing it behind him.

Rey walked to the upstairs bathroom, thankfully no one was in it. While rubbing the cream on the part of her lip that was split open she kept thinking to herself over and over again. 'Who does that joc...'Finn' think he is?' 

But as she was rubbing the cream in, she was also thinking to herself, 'Hmm...'Finn' that's a nice name.' Yet again wanting internally to kick herself for thinking that way about some guy she barely knew, and who barely knew her. 

As she was done applying the cream in the bathroom mirror, she switched off the light and walked into her shared bedroom. As soon as she entered, she could immediately feel the tension in the air. 

BeeBee must have had a nightmare again. She was tossing and turning in her sleep, and half moaning half crying, but unable to wake herself.

"Shut her up Rey! Some of us are trying to sleep!" she was immediately greeted with. 

Rey walked over to BeeBee's bunk and crouched down in front of it. She gently place her palm against BeeBee's forhead and began shushing her. 

"Shh...you're just dreaming. It's okay, Rey's here. It's okay." Even in the dark of the room, Rey could tell that BeeBee's eyes had opened. 

"It was the fire Rey....my mommy and daddy..." she started.

"I know, I know. It's okay, you're here with me now, and you're safe" Rey said picking her shaking little frame up out of her bunk and carrying her over to her own.

Rey had gotten used to BeeBee's sleep patterns a long time ago. it was better to try to make her go back to sleep right away as opposed to her having the chance to linger on her dream any longer than she had to, upsetting herself further, and then in turn upsetting the other fosters as well. 

BeeBee snuggled up to Rey as she always did when Rey let her share her bunk. "Thank you Rey" BeeBee whispered just so that she and Rey were the only ones who could hear her.

"It's okay BeeBee" Rey said back."There's never anything wrong with someone watching out for you, and that's what I'm going to do as long as we're together, is to watch out for you" she said looking down at BeeBee smiling. 

Rey relaxed into her pillow and shut her eyes. But right before she let sleep take her away, she rethought about the words she had just spoken.

'There's nothing wrong with someone watching out for you...'

She actually had to think about if she wanted to wake BeeBee up and tell her that this wasn't true because she felt like a hypocrite. Was it really okay? In their situation as foster kids to have someone looking out for you, and it be okay?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey get a little closer...

Rey had gotten an A minus on her English final that she had been so worried about. She also received lunch money from Ms. Phasma indicating that both she and Mr. Plutt would probably be in good moods for the rest of the week.

Things at home would be quiet for a while, things would be good. They sort of already were, seeing how no one had been getting in trouble over Ms. Phasma's 'showering rule', and Beebee had hardly any bad dreams for the whole month. Things were looking very good.

Rey sat down at her normal place for lunch. Underneath the tree in the middle of campus. It was away from everyone, and everything. It was one of those nice and peaceful times of day were she took full advantage of the silence she had, as opposed to the several other times in her life. She took a bite into her apple, and began looking over her study guide for her next class when she looked up. There 'he' was, again. Walking with all of his friends, talking and laughing and all smiles. His smile was contagious, as Rey felt her own cheeks perk up. But she quickly looked down so as not to draw any attention to herself from the other jocks seeing how they were far less kind than Finn was.

Finn and his friends ended up sitting not too far away from where Rey was. In fact, Finn sat down and immediately noticed her sitting about thirty feet away. At first all they did was exchange glances at one another. But when Finn was sure that Rey was looking, he smiled at her. That big toothy smile that was some how beginning to work it's way under Rey's skin. She couldn't help herself, she ended up smiling back. After Finn was rewarded with a smile from Rey, he even took the liberty to wave at her. Rey still couldn't figure it out. Why a popular jock like himself would be nice to a nobody like her. When they first met, that's actually what she wanted to say to him. _"You're Rey Skywalker, right?"_ he had asked her. _"No"_ she wanted to say. _"I'm no one."_

Before she could even get the chance to wave back, an enormous foot stepped on her tray. Crushing all of the food that she had spent some of the money on that she was given. She looked up, and it was no one other than the two jock boys who had destroyed her book bag by tearing it in half.

"Oops" the first boy said. He was the one with the dark shoulder length hair who had started up with her first, the last time this happened.

"You know you should really consider putting your food on a table, so stuff like this doesn't happen again" he said as they both laughed.

Rey didn't know if the good mood that her foster parents were in would last, meaning she didn't know if she and the rest of the foster kids would get fed later on that night. Which also meant having a meal at school could've ended up being her only one for the whole day, or for a long while, she didn't know. And for these two jerks to come over and just step on all of it, ruining her lunch, she felt ready to snap.

As they were laughing Rey stood up, she felt like she could punch the first guy for doing what he did. But before anything could happen, she heard "Hey!" being screamed from across the way. They all looked over and all saw Finn jogging up to them.

She didn't need him to save her again. This is something she could handle on her own, and she wanted him to see that. Before Finn could reach them, Rey bent down and picked up the plastic tray that the first jock had stepped on, and hit him in the shoulder with it.

"Ow! What the..." is all he said before Rey wound up the trey and cracked him in the side of his head with it. She managed to hit him one more time before the tray broke in half. Rey dropped the broken half before looking over towards Finn wearing an extremely proud look on her face. Finn looked over at her, with an extremely impressed look on his face, mouth agape and everything.

Rey's proud moment was sort lived however, when she felt her balance leaving her. She had been pushed very hard and fell backwards. Before she realized what was happening, she saw the jock who she had beaten standing over her with the half drunk soda can that Rey had. He poured it all over her. Her hair, her face, her clothes, it got everywhere. Then to make matters worse, he threw the can at her.

"Trash" he spat at her. Rey went to lunge at him, but was caught by another pair of arms pulling her backwards. She went to turn and swing, but stopped short when she realized that it was Finn.

"Easy, easy" he said.

Rey lowered her fist when she came to see that Finn was trying to help her, not harm her.

She felt the back of her eyes begin to sting. But had already decided in her mind that it would be a cold day in hell before she would let anyone ever see her cry. She sucked in a breath as Finn stepped in front of her. She was wet, and sticky, hungry, and worst of all humiliated. They now had the entire attention of everyone who was at lunch right then. When sitting under the tree in her normal spot normally wouldn't draw attention to her, today, that's all it was doing.

"Okay guys, that's enough! You've crossed the line!" Finn shouted.

"Ooh sorry 'Big Deal' we didn't mean to cross the line with your girlfriend!" The two jocks high fived each other, even though it was a terrible jock that no one else was laughing at except for them.

"I'm not his..." Rey was about to say before she got cut off.

"Leave her alone!" Finn said again with her voice deep and his tone serious. "Enough is enough!"

The two jocks raised up in their hands like they were surrendering. "Whatever" they said as they both proceeded to walk away.

After the two jocks walked away, Finn turned his full attention back to Rey. "You alright?" he asked. Rey said nothing as she kept wiping her clothes off. Her shirt was soaked, and now stained with red soda. So much for the peace in the house that she was hoping for. Coming home with damaged clothes means that they would have to buy her a new one. Mr. Plutt and Ms. Phasma didn't care, but they did want to be seen as 'good' foster parents. They didn't want any of their kids taken away at risk of not cashing out their checks at the end of the month.

"Yea I'm fine" Rey said not looking at him.

"I think I've got a clean gym shirt in my car if you would like to change?" Finn offered. Rey finally looked up at him. 'Why?' she wondered. Why on earth was he being so nice to her. Her. Of all people. Was it pity? Did he pity her because, like him, she was an orphan too? What was it that made her so special.

Instead of asking him all of the following questions that had popped into her head, she simply nodded her head, and followed him to his car.

Once they were out in the parking lot and approached Finn's car, Finn opened the trunk with one of his keys as Rey looked over his shoulder into the trunk. There she found three rows of neatly folded clothes all sitting there. Two spare changes of clothes, one dirty one clean she assumed, and a pair of gym shorts and a gym shirt. Finn placed his hand on top of the shirt he had promised Rey. "Ahh, here we go" he said handing the shirt to Rey. She just stood there. "Well? Aren't you going to go and change?" Finn asked.

It was then that Rey remember that the bruise on her stomach wasn't all the way healed yet. She didn't want to go into one of the nearby bathrooms or locker rooms and risk someone seeing it. "Do you...uh, mind if I change in your car?" she asked him expecting him to ask for a reason why. Instead, he simply said, "Sure" and handed her the keys. Rey looked at the keys, then looked at Finn. The same question made its way into her mind that had been there since the day she had met him.

Rey quickly got in the passenger seat, then turned around to make sure Finn wasn't looking. Unsurprisingly, he was turned away, and even had his hands over his eyes. All of that without her even asking him to. Once she had taken her messy, sticky t-shirt off, she slid the one that Finn had given her. She noticed how nice and soft it was and how clean it smelled. Smelled more than just clean, it smelled like something else she couldn't quiet put her finger on.

Now that Rey was changed, she heard the bell ring and blew her breath. She then heard a knock coming from the driver's window. It was Finn, who was still turned all the way away from her. "Umm...are you all done? Cuz I kinda need my keys back" Finn said.

"Yea, I'm done" Rey said.

Finn turned around cautiously just to make sure. Once he realized Rey was completely clothed he opened up the driver door and leaned in. He was about to ask if she was all ready to go back to class since the bell had rung, but then he looked at her. Really, looked at her. He knew that she was fighting tears back. He knew how embarrassed and how upset she must be feeling right then and there. And even though he knew he'd get in trouble later on at the group home, he decided to act on his impulse to help her feel better.

"You wanna get out of here for a bit?" Finn asked her.

Rey looked up at him, her cheeks completely flushed from the attempt at fighting not to cry in front of someone. She didn't answer him. She just looked at him. Really, looked at him. She could tell that he knew she wasn't going to allow herself to cry in front of him. She knew that he knew that she was embarrassed, and that this day would probably only get worse and worse as time went on. She went back to staring at the dashboard, and Finn took that as a silent affirmative.

He got in, slowly reached over for the keys still in Rey's possession, started up the car, and they were off.

At first he had no idea where they were going, but then he slowly formulated a plan in his head. Instead of asking her, he figured he'd tell her, since she was already in the car with him. "So..." he began. "How about we get you a real lunch" he finished. Rey said nothing, only remaining silent.

After driving around for about ten minuets or so, Finn had finally reached their destination. Rey looked out the window, and saw before her some fancy joint with a name she knew she couldn't pronounce if she tried. She leaned her head back in before quietly mumbling something to Finn.

"What was that?" Finn asked leaning in a little bit closer.

"I..."Rey mumbled again. "I don't have the money for a place like this..." she said, clearly embarrassed for admitting so.

Finn leaned back and smiled. "Don't worry, it's on me. My treat" he said with an even bigger smile.

Rey slammed her fist down on the dashboard. She couldn't take it anymore. "Why!?" she screamed. "Why are you doing this? Why are you being so nice to me? Why are you going out of your way so much for me?! Why did you chase me down to give me back my homework?! Why did you stick up for me when you could've just looked the other way today?! Why?! Just...why?!"

Finn's smile immediately went away. He placed his hands on the steering wheel and looked down in his lap. He looked as if he had something to say, but just couldn't spit it out.

"Well?" Rey demanded.

"I...well, I just thought it was obvious" he said blushing.

'Blushing?!' Rey thought. 'Was he actually blushing? What for? Why?'

"What's obvious? What are you talking about?" Rey asked.

She saw Finn take a long and deep breath. "Well....it's because...well" another pause.

"Just say it!" Rey barked.

"It's because I like you" Finn said, finally looking up at her.

Rey froze. She was unclear if she heard right. She just sat there and stared at him. She felt as if her heart had stopped beating, and her mouth went dry. She was sure and one hundred percent positive she didn't hear what she thought she just heard. Finn...popular jock, whom everybody absolutely adored and loved, Finn liked her? A nothing? A nobody?

"You...you like me?" Rey asked.


End file.
